Intel Promises Quad-Core LTE Chip: Report

Intel's planning a new Medfield processor capable of handling high-speed LTE data, according to a published media report.

Gary Krakow

NEW YORK (TheStreet) - Intel's (:INTC) Atom X86 "Medfield" processors have been used only in a handful of smartphone designs to date.

That's because, up to this point, Intel's Medfield "system-on-a-chip" has been single-core and has not supported 4G/LTE networks. Medfield, however, has been included in devices by companies like Lenovo, Xolo and Orange and sold in places like the UK, Russia, China and India.

The latest Intel Medfield phone is Motorola's Razr "i" device currently on sale in Europe where LTE is not as easy to find as it is in the United States.

In the U.S., the same phone is called the Droid Razr M (Verizon(:VZ)) and sports a dual-core, Qualcomm(:QCOM) Snapdragon processor.

But Intel told TechCrunch it's busy working on a new Medfield processor with more than one core that will also take advantage of "hyper threading" as well as handling high-speed LTE data.

Intel has boasted that Medfield could keep up with dual and even quad-core chips by using its "hyper threading" technology. Independent smartphone tests were inconclusive.

The no.1 chip maker hopes to have more to say about the new processors by the end of the year.